


covered in the colors

by lacklusterlesbian



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU, mainly focused on Rosa, technically her grandmother dies but it's not graphic, this is probably terrible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 07:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14373411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacklusterlesbian/pseuds/lacklusterlesbian
Summary: you can only see the color of your soulmate's eyes. when you lock eyes with them for the first time, you can finally see the world in full technicolor.





	covered in the colors

**Author's Note:**

> sorry this is probably going to be awful. i mainly just wanted to explore Rosa's character a bit. i used a little bit of Spanish, but if it's wrong/bad i can take it out.

Rosa grew up with her parents and her grandparents. She grew up in a world of blue. 

Rosa spends the first 25 years of her life overcome by blue. She memorized the shades, cataloged each variant of teal, and turquoise, and azure, and discovers she hates any variant dubbed baby blue.

Her grandmother tells her all about the colors she interacts with everyday, how the walls in her room are white, the bark on the trees is brown, the grass is green, that most of her clothes are black, and that the sky is, well, blue. 

Rosa wants more. She wants to see why her grandmother’s eyes light up whenever she sees something green, wants to experience the world in technicolor, wants to see the red of her blood rather than the ridiculous blue that makes her feel like the ocean is leaking out of her. Rosa wants to understand what people mean when they say color makes you feel, but most of all she wants to not feel confined by the shades she always sees whenever she looks outside.

(In the end, she just feels bad for her soulmate, because her eyes are brown).

\--------------------------------------------------------

Rosa first gets the idea when she’s watching tv with her father and sees a commercial for colored contacts. “Do you think we could get some, papi? I think my soulmate would like colors other than brown.”

So Rosa got a whole range of colored contacts, a week for every color of the rainbow.

She didn’t particularly notice much difference in her vision aside from the annoyance in her eyes, so she just wore the blue for a week and left the rest in a box underneath her bed, untouched.

When asked about it by her grandfather, Rosa simply stated that she wanted to give her soulmate time to adjust slowly to the different colors and so she was taking her time with it.

In truth, Rosa decided she didn’t want to be the kind of mushy romantic that did nice things for her soulmate like let them see different colors if she was going to get made fun of by kids at school who had already found who they were meant to be with.

“Aw, look at Diaz. Blue eyes today, huh? How romantic, betcha think your soulmate will want you if you do things like that for him, right?” One of the kids had said, grinning proudly at her bold statement.

Rosa, however, had never been one to back down, and managed to trip the girl before the teacher aide pulled her away. 

After that incident, however, Rosa refused to be seen wearing the different colored contacts again, fearing the scorn she would receive from her classmates, no matter how bold and uncaring she tried to be.

\---------------------------------------------------------

“One day you’ll see all the colors, but all you’ll really see is their eyes, the expressiveness of them. You’ll be able to look into their eyes and just understand them completely.” Her grandfather once said to her.

He was a bit of an idealist, but Rosa loved listening to him growing up, unwilling to believe that she could ever not meet her soulmate.

She loved going up to her grandfather and asking what color she was wearing.

“Oh, mija, that green looks lovely on you!”

“I don’t think yellow is really your color, Rosa, but here, try this nice black shirt.”

“Pink, mija, will definitely help you stand out.”

Rosa went through catholic school and then ballet school with a smaller amount of interaction with her family, but no less love.

“Hey, mom, what color is this?” Rosa had asked once.

“I don’t know, darling. Ask your grandfather.” Her mother had dismissed, easily, no hint of real emotion in her voice.

Rosa had walked off, startled, and was forced to sit through a lecture from her grandmother about how, “Even though your parents aren’t soulmates, they love each other very much. I know your grandpapi likes to idealize the idea of meeting someone the universe set out for you, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Sometimes they never meet, or they don’t love each other, or one of them dies before their time.”

Rosa had taken the realization rather harshly. 

She began to wonder if she would ever meet her soulmate.

\---------------------------------------------------------

Ballet school was fun until she got a new teacher and then it was just hard work, constantly trying to be the best in an effort to not be undermined by the other girls also grappling for the lead spot in their upcoming show. 

She had her hairdresser dye her hair pink in an effort to show that she deserved to stand out, that she wasn’t just part of the crowd. 

But then one of her classmates shoved her and declared, loudly, “Pink is so not your color, Diaz. Wanna know what is? Oh, that’s right, you haven’t met your soulmate. Or maybe you just don’t have one, huh? Like your parents?” 

Long story short, Rosa threw a couple punches and promptly quit. She refused to partake in the ridiculous drama of ballet any longer.

Her grandfather was nothing but supportive. “Oh, mija, they won’t know what they’re missing. Aren’t you excited? You’ll get to meet even more people now. Maybe you’ll finally get to see all the colors.”

Rosa did meet lots of new people, or rather, she looked into the eyes of a lot of new people, glared, and ensured that no one ever gave her anything but the utmost respect. She was unsociable, but unwilling to change, to connect with anyone who might cause her harm.

\---------------------------------------------------------

Her grandfather was the only real uplifting part of her life. He told her fantastical stories of soulmates that made her wonder if she would ever have as great a story as them.

“When your abuela and I first met, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I all of the sudden had all of this color, but all I wanted to look at was her.”

“Oh, baby, I’ll bet they have the prettiest blue eyes. I’ll bet as soon as you meet them you won’t be able to take your eyes off of them.”

He told her so many stories, and gave her advice, and was in turn the only person she told that her soulmate might not necessarily be a boy (but she suspected he already knew).

Then her grandmother died, and the colors faded from her grandfather’s eyes.

“What color is this?” She asked her grandfather once.

“I don’t know.” He once replied, his eyes filling unapologetically with tears.

Rosa began to wonder if there was even a point to soulmates, if it made people like her grandfather hurt like that.

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Graduation brought a fresh break from the monotony of high school. Rosa was finally able to break free of the oppressive atmosphere that had surrounded her parents house ever since her grandmother had died.

College was much the same as high school, unfortunately. Rosa still made eye contact with lots of people, and inevitably the glare that was nearly always on her face slowly became more expected than any other expression.

Police academy was different, however. She finally began to make friends, in the form of one Jake Peralta, who followed her like a lost puppy in order to ‘learn her intimidation techniques so I can make someone confess to their crimes in under a minute, c’mon, Rosa’ which ended up eventually working on her.

Unfortunately for Jake, he just wasn’t the type for intimidation.

“I can’t help you, Jake, you just don’t have what it takes.”

“Rosa!”

“See? That puppy stare is exactly what I mean. No one could be intimidated by that.”

Becoming a beat cop was a nice start to the beginning of her career, and she eventually got enough arrests that she was promoted, and when the offer to work at the 99, the same precinct that Jake worked at, happened, it wasn’t really a coincidence that she accepted the opportunity.

Working with the likes of Terry Jeffords and Charles Boyle, it wasn’t the worst position in the world.

When they were forced to hire a new civilian administrator, because the old one couldn’t handle Hitchcock and Scully any longer, and Jake offered up his lifelong friend Gina Linetti, who, according to him, could be a handful but was still highly respectable, Rosa was highly skeptical.

The woman sounded like far more of a handful than even she was capable of being around, but Jake Peralta was a master of exaggeration, so who really knew. 

On her first day, Jake was extremely giddy, constantly looking around the precinct for any sign of his lifelong friend. 

“She always enjoys being fashionably late. And making a crazy cool entrance. I can’t wait.”

Jake’s assumption of the woman making an interesting entrance were unsurprisingly true. 

Somehow, confetti cannons and fog machines had been set up, as well as a speaker allowing the woman the privilege of letting her voice echo loudly throughout the precinct.

Rosa was unflappable, however, not even bothering to look up at the woman’s grand entrance. 

Instead, she stared hard at her evidence before coming to the conclusion that she needed something from the evidence locker, and promptly walked out of the room without even bothering to give Jake’s friend a cursory glance, instead choosing to ignore her completely.

Rosa was almost through with figuring out her suspects for her case when she was interrupted by a woman at her desk, forcing her to look up from her paperwork long enough to see bright blue eyes.

She didn’t even notice the colors developing in her vision until the other woman gasped, her shock most likely from the same experience Rosa was having.

Rosa didn’t particularly want a soulmate, but she ended up being glad it was one Gina Linetti. The immediate thought process Rosa had following their eyes connecting was the idea that her grandfather might just be happy for her.

Then Gina formerly stuck her hand between them. “Gina Linetti, human form of the one hundred emoji. You must be my soulmate.”

“Rosa.” 

Rosa showed no real outer expression, but she did note the surprise and happiness on Jake’s face, and assumed he had heard Gina speak.

“7:30. Convivium Osteria. I’ll take you.”

Rosa didn’t ask people out. She just told them the time and place, and she assumed she wouldn’t ever actually need to ask ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> please give me validation


End file.
